Facebook Not Concerned With Reports Of Young Users Avoiding Site

It seems like on a monthly basis, there's been a report or study that says teens and young adults are avoiding Facebook in favor of other sites or applications such as Tumblr, Twitter, and Snapchat. Some have even felt that it's a death knell for the future of the company. But as Chief Financial Officer David Ebersman said during Wednesday's first-quarter earnings call, Facebook isn't concerned about these reports.

It seems like on a monthly basis, there’s been a report or study that says teens and young adults are avoiding Facebook in favor of other sites or applications such as Tumblr, Twitter, and Snapchat. Some have even felt that it’s a death knell for the future of the company. But as Chief Financial Officer David Ebersman said during Wednesday’s first-quarter earnings call, Facebook isn’t concerned about these reports.

Ebersman answered a question from Mark Mahaney of RBC Capital Markets about Facebook’s dilemma with people under the age of 25:

I guess I’d start by saying we remain really pleased with the high level of engagement on Facebook by people of all ages around the world. You asked about people under 25. We continue to have really high penetration rates among that age group, both in the U.S. and globally. And the younger users remain among the most active and engaged users that we have on Facebook. And then in addition, younger users are extremely active users of Instagram, as well. So that’s great and makes our position even stronger. I think, from our standpoint, the urban legend you referenced sort of flows more often than not from surveys people have done of younger users that indicate that they’re using other social services. And we take this feedback seriously, but our sense is that much of the concern stems from the assumption that this is a zero-sum game, and that’s not how we see it. We think the overall amount of time spent on services that enable you to connect and share is growing and will continue to grow, because these kinds of services are really engaging and good. And it’s great for us to be the leader in a market that’s expanding rapidly with the foundation we have with both Facebook and Instagram, and I guess the challenge for us is to just continue building great products that appeal to users of all ages.